Dark Side
by Johanna Edelstein
Summary: King Candy begins to lose control. Songfic, threeshot. King Candy/Sour Bill.
1. Dark Side

**Removed the lyrics. Based on Dark Side by Kelly Clarkson, glitches.**

Sour Bill awoke to a scream

He jolted up in bed and quickly identified the source to be the writhing man beside him; King Candy. The shorter man scooted to the shuddering sovereign's side and held him close, slipping back into the old routine.

"It's ok, you're alright. I've got you." Sour Bill whispered in his king's ear.

King Candy seemed inconsolable, sobbing and repeating the same sentence again and again, "That'th not me, that'th not me!"

Sour Bill looked into the ruler's frightened eyes and felt a stab of guilt in his heart at seeing the king in pain. He tried again, "I know, I believe you."

King Candy seemed to break away from the daze of sleep and looked at his ex assistant, body shaking with terror.

"Am I awake? Or ith thith thtill a dream?"

Sour Bill was taken back at the sudden change but continued to hold his boyfriend, not wanting him to feel alienated.

"You're awake now, you're safe."

King Candy pushed away from Bill and crossing to the window, eyes full of pain.

Sour Bill's heart seized up in terror. He went to stand by his king's side and tried to wrap him up in a hug, but King Candy just shrugged him off.

"Tell me what's wrong, Candy. What happened in your dream?" King Candy refused to meet his eyes, choosing to watch the darkened video game outside the window.

Sour Bill decided to drop it. He gave his king a rub on the back to help soothe him and started down the stairs, "I'm going to make you some breakfast. Pancakes, Candy, your favorite." The king just continued to gaze out the window.

* * *

King Candy's white and gold cart went skidding around the corner, tires screaming. Vanellope tightly rounded right behind him, laughing manically. Upon hearing the chibi girl, King Candy quickly switched gears as he started up the snowy mountain. This time. This time he would win for sure. As they spun around the mountain trail, King Candy was hitting all the power ups, beating the glitch to each coin.

Next thing he knew, there was a flash of blue pixels and Vanellope was right in front of him.

"Better luck next time King Can't Race!" she yelled before glitching away. King Candy tried to shrug it off, foot pumping the pedal to utilize his power ups. He would catch up.

Without warning, he had a flashback of a very different time.

He was whipping around the Sugar Rush Speedway, head of the pack, leading them up the mountain. Then the glitch had spun past him, giving him a smug smile. He lifted his goggles up and stared with bewilderment. Where had she come from?

Then the flashback jumped ahead and he was that monster again.

He was so distracted that the wheel slipped from his brown gloved grip and all of a sudden he was falling off the edge of the mountain. He had a split second to be terrified by the sensation of falling, then nothing.

* * *

When King Candy awoke, it was nighttime once more and he was seated his kart, parked in the throne room. When he remembered that he had appeared there because that was the location he had programmed himself to regenerate in if he died, he immediately jumped out of the kart and ran out into the royal garden. It was just another reminder of his dark side. He fell to his knees and sobbed into his hands.

He was slipping again, losing control. The nightmares and flashbacks were what proved it. He was a corrupted character and as long as he was free, everyone around him was in danger.

Suddenly he lifted his head. That was the answer.

* * *

In the darkened night, powerful spotlights were trained on the winner. Horns blared, the theme song played and candy confetti rained down from the sky. The giant screen at the finish line displayed Vanellope hoisting a trophy bigger than herself over her head.

Vanellope was laughing and doing a silly victory dance for the candy spectators when she felt a tug on her brown tutu. Looking down, she found herself staring into the eyes of King Candy's little henchman, Sour Bill. Boyfriend Vanellope mentally corrected with a small smile.

She was glad the previous ruler had found someone willing to put up with his crazy antics.

"What can I do for you, Billy?" Vanellope asked, turning back to the cameras and smiling for her subjects.

"The king, I think there's something wrong with him." Sour Bill said. Vanellope looked down at the green ball and saw pure fear in his eyes. She let her trophy drop to her side.

"What makes you think that?"

"He's been having these really bad dreams lately. He refuses to talk about them, but I think that he's flashing back to when he was corrupted. I…I'm scared Vanellope."

At the admission Vanellope's eyes went back to Sour Bill's green ones. As long as she had known him, he had never, ever said he was scared. Not even when the king had been on the brink of death and she knew then that he had been terrified. This was big.

Vanellope threw her trophy to Taffyta, who had been in second place.

"Take it!" she called, "I have a friend to save."

* * *

King Candy finished tying the rope around his waist and took a deep breath. This was it. The only way.

He launched himself into the inky abyss.

Using powerful strokes, he swam to the blue tangle of code and hovered in front of his own box.

Hands sweating, King Candy tried to disconnect the life cord connecting his box to the rest of the game. It didn't work.

Scowling, King Candy remembered that killing someone through their code was impossible. It hadn't worked the first time with Vanellope and it certainly wasn't going to work on himself.

King Candy gritted his teeth. Ah, the first time. If only he had been able to kill that little glitch the first time through, he wouldn't be stuck in this mess.

Suddenly he realized what he was thinking and he seized up. He wasn't allowed those thoughts anymore. He had reformed, he was a good person now.

A small voice in his mind reminded him that if he was such a good person, he wouldn't have tried to kill Vanellope in the first place. He was better off dead.

* * *

Sour Bill held on tightly to Vanellope's hood as they tore along the raceway. Behind Bill sat Wreck-It Ralph and pulling up in the rear were Fix-It Felix and Calhoon riding on her hoverboard.

"We're coming to save you, Candy." Sour Bill whispered to the night sky.

They rounded the corner, the castle looming before them.

* * *

King Candy realized he was just going to end up becoming corrupt again.

This was for the best. His dark side would harm the people he cared about if he didn't do something about it.

His hands went to his lifeline and he began untying the rope.

* * *

"Candy!" Sour Bill cried out.

King Candy looked up to find Sour Bill standing just at the door, holding the end of the rope tightly, trying to pull him in. The monarch felt a tug on his midsection and he realized the rope was still holding him. His fingers began to work the knot once more, loosening it.

"Stop!" King Candy looked over at the sound of his boyfriend's voice.

"What are you doing, King?" Vanellope asked, stepping out from behind the shorter man. She too held the rope.

"I…" King Candy began talking but his teeth were chattering from the cold of the abyss. He tried again, "I'm changing back into the monthter. I don't want to hurt anybody. I thought thith wath the betht way to keep you all thafe." With the final word, King Candy looked away, ashamed.

Calhoon stepped into view. "How is killing yourself going to keep us safe?" she called into the abyss.

"This way I won't rithk hurting any of you. Let me die before my dark thide hurtth you."

Vanellope yelled to the previous ruler, "Listen to me you crazy old man! If you kill yourself, you're going to still hurt all of us."

"How?"

"We all have grown to care about you, Candy. You were corrupted by a virus, you couldn't help it. If you die, we'll all feel awful."

The cold was seeping into his skin, making it glitch with red pixels. He could feel it seeping his strength, weakening his ability to think straight.

"You…you care about me?" he asked quietly.

"Of course we do!" Sour Bill cried.

"You were a candy-coated jerk but you couldn't help it." Vanellope added.

King Candy finished untying the knot and held it weakly in his hand. It was the only thing that kept him alive now.

"I thought you hated me. I tried to kill you, Vanellope. I tried to kill all of you."

"Listen to me, Candy. Turbo took over your code. It wasn't the real King Candy. Doing any of that. I forgive you."

"But I can't." King Candy whispered to himself. He then yelled back, "Turbo ith taking over. There'th no way I'll be able to thtop him. I detherve thith."

With that King Candy let go and began to fall into the darkness.


	2. World

Sour Bill stood by the king's side, holding his hand and hoping he would reawaken.

Fix-It Felix entered the room quietly, hands clasped with worry.

"Oh my land, that was one tricky virus. Has he not woken up yet?"

Sour Bill shook his head mutely.

Felix ran to the diminutive king's side and tore off his hat, putting his ear to the ruler's mouth. After a moment of listening, Felix sighed with relief and wiped his eyes.

"Sorry about that, I was worried something had happened."

Sour Bill just watched the carpenter, eyes somber.

"Listen to me, Bill. I have to tell you this. That malware was taking over his system. He's lucky we removed it when we did. But there's a chance…"

Felix trailed off, swallowed the painful lump in his throat and forged on.

"There's a chance that he might not last the night. You might want to stay with him."

Sour Bill nodded again.

"I'll leave you to it." Felix picked up his hat and held it to his chest. He bowed respectfully to the king and started for the door.

"Felix."

He stopped and looked at Sour Bill.

"I want to thank you. For helping us."

Felix smiled tiredly, "Don't mention it. It's what friends do."

Sour Bill turned back to his king and gripped his hand ever tighter.

* * *

The monarch drifted in an in between place of silence and solitude.

Nothing bothered him here and he was happy.

He was aware of cold in his joints, immobilizing him to his core and a far off voice crying his name, but these things were distant and of no consequence.

He drifted in the abyss.

* * *

Time passed.

Sometimes King Candy was aware, and other times he wasn't even sure if he was breathing.

The distant voice began to come in louder and King Candy listened.

* * *

"Candy." Sour Bill whispered as he rubbed the sovereign's fingers against his lips.

No response.

"Please wake up, Candy." Sour Bill's voice cracked tears that were on the brink of spilling down his cheeks. It would not end like this. There was no way King Candy could just…die. He was too important.

"Fine, don't wake up." Bill struggled with his next words, "But at least here this. If you die…If you die, I'm going to hold myself personally responsible; I need you to know that."

The only sound was the occasional slight whoosh as air passed King Candy's lips.

"How…how could you do this to me?" Sour Bill demanded, dropping the hand he held and standing for better volume, "You're hurting _me_ right now. Did that thought ever cross your mind, that you would hurt me by killing yourself?"

Sour Bill's eyes darted to the floor, "Look, I'm sorry. I'm just upset. I get it."

The next sentence took a bit of thinking. He rubbed his forehead, trying to remove the headache and continued, "You…you were doing what you thought was best for us. You were trying to protect us from your malware. But that wasn't you. I forgive you. We all do."

Bill sighed and turned away from the form lying on the bed.

"What am I thinking? You can't hear me anyway. Maybe it would be better if I left you alone. It seems like that's what you want, to be alone. Pushing me away when I wanted to help. Refusing to talk. Hell, you were going to kill yourself without consulting me first, without letting me in. You didn't want me by your side, why should I force my presence on you now?"

Sour Bill fought back the tears that threatened to run down his cheeks in hot rivulets.

It took all his strength to continue.

"I'll leave you to it."

And with that, he walked from the room.

* * *

King Candy was shocked.

He hadn't been thinking of Sour Bill's feelings when he had untied that rope.

His heart constricted painfully, unable to apologize to his boyfriend- well now maybe not anymore. King Candy grimaced, wishing he could say something, anything to Sour Bill before he left.

"Bill…" he whimpered, almost inaudible.

He prayed it was enough.

The door closed.

With a start, King Candy realized he had been abandoned. Bill probably didn't want anything to do with him now.

King Candy felt tears prick his eyes and he surrendered to the nothingness of the abyss.

* * *

Ralph and Vanellope stopped just outside of the door.

Vanellope peaked in.

"Sour Bill's gone." She said, confusion coloring her voice.

Ralph rubbed the back of his neck, choosing not to tell the little girl the truth, "He must have gone to the bathroom."

"I'll go keep King Candy company while he waits!" Vanellope entered the room and pulled a chair to the side of the bed. Ralph watched the chibi girl before sighing and walking away.

* * *

King Candy was pulled back from the darkness by the voice of Vanellepe.

He really didn't want to hear her disapproving words but her voice came in loud, too loud to ignore. Mentally cringing, King Candy listened.

* * *

"King? I don't know if you can hear me but I'm here to keep you company while Bill's busy." Vanellope said, voice earnest.

"But don't worry, he'll be back soon." She added quickly, "Then you can wake up and we'll all be happy again!"

King Candy was about to cry. Vanellope sounded so concerned about him. To think he had almost ruined that- he quickly corrected- he still might just slip away and hurt her anyway. He willed himself to open his eyes, to properly wake up. His eyes stayed firmly closed.

"Sorry for calling you King Can't Race. I didn't mean it. I hope you get better now." Vanellope said solemnly.

"Felix removed the malware that was corrupting your code. That means you can be good now!" Vanellope said, tone brightening considerable.

"And when you wake up, you can go to Bad Anon meetings with Ralph and get yourself happy again. Then you can be goofy all you like and we can race and I'll let you win sometimes!"

King Candy almost laughed. He could beat Vanellope with his eyes closed; he didn't need her to let him.

"I just want you to know that I think of you as a crazy big brother and I don't want you to leave our family. I…I love you Candy."

King Candy tried to say it back, to let her know how he felt, but as hard as he tried, he couldn't.

"We all do. Felix and Ralph and Calhoon, even though they don't show it. And Bill. He loves you a lot. I don't want you to leave us. Please come back!" Vanellope's terror was palpable.

King Candy struggled, trying to move, to speak, to open his eyes. He wanted so badly to. And just as he thought he was close to beating the darkness, it reared up, stronger than ever and pulled him back down.


End file.
